SMS hacking: He might have an answer

A slip of a youth, Dipak Kumar Jain has done something that has even baffled the cyber experts.

A commerce graduate from local VD College, Dipak has developed a software through which a hacker can send SMS to anyone through mobiles held by other persons and having other numbers and, importantly, without the knowledge of the original mobile owner.

He is now working on the detection system which he claims can take shape if he gets proper patronage.

His work, Dipak hopes, would help check cycer crimes. The Bollywood and Delhi’s power corridor were in a fix a fortnight ago over such fraudulent messages involving the names and numbers of several known actors as well as Union ministers. Dipak’s system can provide vital information to the cops.

Recently, he was called by a leading TV channel in New Delhi where he shared his research with senior police officials and cyber crime experts.

First Trojan For Seriers 60 Users Discovered

Series 60 users beware. Kaspersky Labs has just discovered the Troja-SMS.Symb.OS.Viver which is the first Trojan for the S60 OS. It can easily be downloaded from the Net and unknowingly installed in your phone. Users may download it unknowingly as the trojan could be labeled anything from a picture editing software to a codec of some kind.

The Viver virus has been specially designed for the S60 Smartphone OS. What it primarily does after being installed, is send out SMSes from your phone to premium SMS numbers, the ones that cost more than just 50 paise or 1 buck.

It’s a simple set up for the author. SMSes would be sent to a premium number that’s rented by the author thus generating his income. So if you’’e a regular download junkie of freeware from the internet for your phone, you may want to think twice. Let’s just hope the guys down at Kaspersky can come up with something to take care of Viver ASAP.

Users are biggest threat to mobile-phone security

Users are the weakest link when it comes to protecting information systems, because of social engineering, which relies on the manipulation of people rather than machines

The same trickery is being used against mobile-phone users, despite attempts by companies to create relatively secure operating systems, such as the market leader, Symbian.

F-Secure security expert, Patrik Runald, said in an interview with ZDNet Australia last week that the Symbian operating system is “fairly secure”.

“All the malware we’ve seen so far relies on the user installing it themselves, bypassing three to four security warnings, so there hasn’t really been a flaw in the operating system,” he said.

Runald admits some problems may be caused by unclear instructions on the user-interface but, by and large, it is caused by users ignoring warning signs.

Runald said that there have been a few cases where cybercriminals have disguised files to make them look like an interesting shareware or freeware, but mostly he blames user ignorance.

“They think it’s about ringtones, games, wallpapers, videos; all good and fun things but there are actually malicious things out there as well,” said Runald.

Threat from Bluetooth
Bluetooth users may find themselves asked: “Would you like to install this program now?” When they click “no”, the question persists. Often immediately until they choose the other option out of frustration.

“That’s the reason why people get infected: because they repeatedly click no and obviously ‘no’ doesn’t work and so they click ‘yes’ and they get infected,” said Runald. When faced with this type of scenario, he advises users to “Just walk away”.

“Bluetooth has a very limited range — it’s about 15 to 20 metres. Then go into your Bluetooth settings and disable Bluetooth completely or make it hidden for all other devices,” Runald added.